Pierce Brosnan steps up environmental campaign against BHP

Actor News - 11-03-07

Hollywood celebrities, including Pierce Brosnan and Martin Sheen, have stepped up their campaign to sink BHP Billiton's controversial $US5 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project - The Sydney Morning Herald.


Above: Pierce Brosnan and wife Keely Shaye Smith.

The actors led a protest involving 200 angry placard carrying locals at California's landmark Malibu Pier against the Australian resources giant's plan.

"This project has to be stopped and stopped now," Sheen, a longtime resident of Malibu who played the US President in the TV series The West Wing, said after the rally.

"We have to stand up and protect the environment."

BHP Billiton plans to build a 14 storey high, 295m long LNG terminal 22.25 kilometres off the coast of Malibu.

The LNG would be transported by ship from gas fields in other parts of the world to the terminal and then piped to the California mainland north of the seaside town famed for its resident celebrities.

Prime Minister John Howard has personally lobbied California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to approve the terminal as it would be one of the most lucrative export deals in Australian history.

It has been estimated to be worth more than $US15 billion in export contracts.

Today's protest was staged at a sensitive time for the project.

In early April three crucial hearings will be held by the US Coast Guard, the California State Lands Commission and the US Maritime Administration to investigate the proposal.

Schwarzenegger is expected to make a ruling in the middle of this year.

On Friday the US Coast Guard, the California State Lands Commission and the US Maritime Administration released a 3000 page report that concluded BHP Billiton's plan would pose environmental and public safety concerns.

The terminal, if approved, would process about 800 million cubic feet of natural gas daily for US residents and business.

However, protesters pointed to the 219 tonnes of ozone-forming emissions and 35 tonnes of smoke and soot the project would emit daily, making it one of the biggest air polluters in the region.

The report also concluded the project would impact marine animals.

"Significant and unavoidable offshore impacts during construction would be noise impacts, and marine biology and water quality impacts that could result from a significant spill or LNG release," the report concluded.

Residents fear the terminal could become a target of a terrorist attack, but the report found the risk of such a catastrophe would be slight and any explosion would not reach the mainland.

BHP Billiton has defended the project, which is called Cabrillo Port.

"Cabrillo Port will be built to the highest public safety and environmental standards and will provide clean, safe, reliable energy to meet Ventura County's and California's ever-growing energy needs," Renee Klimczak, president of BHP Billiton LNG International, told the Los Angeles Times newspaper.

BHP Billiton reportedly spent $US1.8 million ($2.3 million) in California last year lobbying for the project. It was the the seventh highest expenditure among special-interest groups.

At today's protest BHP Billiton was painted as a greedy company that planned to destroy the beauty of the California coast.

Brosnan, the suave Irish-born actor who was recently replaced as James Bond in the 007 films, and his wife, Keely Shaye Smith, have been vocal opponents of the terminal.

"The only thing green about this project is the money that will line the pockets of BHP," Smith told the rally as her husband and two sons, Dylan, 10, and Paris, 5, looked on.

Other celebrities who have voiced concern in the past about the terminal include Australia's Olivia Newton-John, Tom Hanks, Charlize Theron, Barbra Streisand, Cher, Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman, Sting, Dick Van Dyke, Jane Seymour, Dylan McDermott, James Brolin, Kenny G, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Cindy Crawford, Daryl Hannah and Ed Harris.

Thanks to `Barge` for the alert.

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